Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. O'Connell and Dr. Carroll and their officials. In going through the report I wish to compliment them on the Comptroller and Auditor General's observation that from 2009 to 2012, the HSE set a 75% target day surgery rate for all acute hospitals for the 24 procedures and reached a rate of 74%. It is rare that we see targets actually being reached, so I compliment the witnesses on that. However, the next sentence says that there is a significant variation in performance rates between the individual hospitals. This variation can be dramatic, ranging from 50% to 92%. Reading between the lines of the report, some clinicians expressed the view that the 24 target procedures are not suitable for day surgery. Another one mentions that consultants and so forth were possibly objecting. Is it the case that the variance is due to individual consultants in individual hospitals who have a different view to the HSE on how certain day case procedures should be treated and that they would rather these procedures were treated as in-patient surgeries?